Acacia charter schools to shut down after months of turmoil

Monday

Mar 27, 2017 at 5:43 PMMar 27, 2017 at 10:21 PM

Nicholas Filipas Record Staff Writer @nicholasfilipas

STOCKTON — Patricia Zeitz was among hundreds of parents with children enrolled at the Acacia Elementary and Acacia Middle charter schools who capped off their recent spring break with a grim announcement: both schools will soon be closing their doors for good.

“I’m pissed,” Zeitz said Monday as she must find the right school to send her third and youngest son, Patrick, to start the seventh grade this fall.

“First, they started (the school year) two weeks late … then we got another message that said all those who go to the middle school are now moved to the elementary campus starting (Monday),” she said. “It’s a big fiasco.”

In a 345-word email to parents announcing the schools’ closures, Lynn Lysko, interim CEO of Tri-Valley Learning Corp., a Livermore-based company that owns both charters, wrote that Acacia Elementary, at 1016 E. Bianchi Road, and Acacia Middle, 1605 E. March Lane, would both officially close on May 26, the last day of school, after what she called months of “negotiations, hard work and solution searching.”

“We simply lack the resources to continue the legal and administrative fight and see it through to a successful conclusion,” Lysko wrote.

The two charters, where some 650 students are enrolled, were overseen by the New Jerusalem School District. In July, the district cited financial mismanagement with Tri-Valley Learning and revoked the charters.

New Jerusalem Superintendent David Thoming said last summer that the paperwork submitted by Tri-Valley appeared to show the schools were in the red by nearly $1 million.

A month later, just as classes were beginning, the San Joaquin County Superior Court issued a ruling ordering New Jerusalem to cease from interfering in the charter schools’ operations, effectively stalling its attempt to revoke the charter.

Also in August, Tri-Valley Learning said it would ask the Stockton Unified School District to grant its charter, although SUSD officials said the deadline for such a petition had passed by several months.

Tri-Valley Learning then threatened legal action against SUSD, saying the district had an obligation to consider the petitions, regardless of when they are submitted, but ultimately, the board voted against the charter citing ”an unrealistic financial and operational plan.”

Months later, Tri-Valley Learning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“While we faced many financial hurdles this year, we have done our best to ensure that the academic programs have had the resources they needed to provide the kind of high quality education that has been the Acacia standard since we opened,” Lysko wrote in the email.

On Monday, Thoming said in an email that the New Jerusalem district has yet to receive anything official from Lysko or Tri-Valley Learning about the Acacia closures.

“They have proven over the past two years their aversion to doing the right thing, or following the law,” Thoming wrote. “TVLC is a bad operator and it was their actions which have led us to this point.”

He pointed out that Tri-Valley Learning did not deliver its promise for high quality education as well as failing to provide a positive work environment for staff.

“Closing these schools will be the best thing for all involved, however the negative impact on the students will be devastating,” wrote Thoming. “It isn’t their fault the school has to close, yet they are the ones who take the biggest hit from all of this due to the actions of TVLC.”

Near the end of the letter, Lysko included the numbers for the front offices of SUSD, TEAM Charter and Stockton Collegiate International Secondary School, both located in downtown Stockton, for parents to transition their children to another school before the fall. She concluded the letter by saying: “I wish you and your children a bright, prosperous future.”

SUSD Assistant Superintendent Tom Anderson said Monday the district is already making plans to absorb those families who end up sending their children to San Joaquin County’s largest school district.

“We are proactively making sure we have the space and have the resources available for those students and families,” Anderson said, emphasizing that students could enroll at Commodore Skills or Primary Years Academy charters, and that many of the Acacia families are already living in the district.

The decision to close Acacia Middle has capped a frustrating school year for Zeitz and her son, as he struggled with a revolving door of teachers, overcrowded class sizes and a rude and unresponsive staff, she said. She hopes she can transfer her son to TEAM Charter, where he can join his brother.

“I’m glad that Acacia is no longer going to be around,” she said. “They should’ve never opened the school in the first place when you don’t know if you’re going to stay open.”

— Contact reporter Nicholas Filipas at (209) 546-8257 or nfilipas@recordnet.com. Follow him on recordnet.com/filipasblog or on Twitter @nicholasfilipas.